Adventures of Chris Review | Nintendo Switch, PC.

This is Chris Guin, like many kids into  video games in the early 90s, he was a   stereotypical dork that loved video games, was a  bit overweight, and had an impeccable imagination. This is his video game and somewhat  autobiography, a fun new indie appropriately   titled, The Adventures of Chris and it's  available on PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch.

This game truly makes you feel like Chris,  actually, I didn't need to play this game to feel   like Chris. I too grew up as an overweight video  game nerd and thus I found myself resonating a lot   with the humor and writing with this adventure.  Being somewhat of an autobiography, we play and   learn a lot about Chris, a young well-rounded  boy who finds himself whisked away to a world of   magic and fantasy.

It's here that the evil Count  Jr, transforms Chris, along with multiple other   kidnapped children from all around the world, into  obscure objects. It turns out this evil villain   wanted to get into a villain club and these now  modified children are Count Jr's bribe gift.

Luckily Chris manages to escape Count Jr's  clutches and finds himself in the balloon kingdom   hovering over everything. It's here he devises  a plan to find the missing children across the   world and save the day. It's a story filled with  plenty of laughs and humor that I'm sure those of   you that grew up in similar scenarios to Chris  will most certainly resonate with the writing.

For me, who was bullied for  being overweight as a kid,   a lot of the laughs at Chris were relatable  but also empowering in some sense.   Seeing this young weak nerd go from  zero to hero, it was heartwarming. Once the story opens up to saving the  children across the world, the gameplay   is presented in this action platformer  format that's reminiscent of Mega Man.

I was presented with a world map that featured  both optional and mandatory missions that   progressed toward the game's competition.  Just like the Robot Masters in Mega Man,   I was able to tackle any of these  missions in any order I'd like.   The sense of freedom was great, it kept the  gameplay from feeling constrained while also   letting me explore the different types of levels,  enemies, and environments that each stage held.

Early on, Chris can't really do much. He can  barely even jump to a ledge without struggling   to pull himself up. He's about as weak as  you can get but as he visits these various   locations to save the kids around the world,  he finds himself with new powers to aid him   on his journey.

For example, he able to float in  midair with a curse that's inflicted by Count Jr.   Later on, as he fights bigger bosses, he'll  come across new powers like the ability to   shoot fire from his fist. The more powers  Chris unlocks, the more versatile he becomes.

With the press of a button, he's able to switch  between multiple powers for whatever case scenario   comes in his way. Throughout these levels are  collectibles for the completionist running   through this campaign. At the very end are boss  fights that in true classic platformer fashion,   push you to use your new-found ability from  that level in a unique way to take them down.   On rare occasions, I noticed hit  detection wasn't always the best,   especially when using the body slam ability  that occasionally bounced back and other times,   went right through the enemy.

While the  campaign isn't very long, I thoroughly   enjoyed my time playing it. I thought the level  design was solid and the variety of powers,   kept each level evolving in unique ways. As for  replayability, multiple difficulties can amp up   the challenge for players or make it a breeze  for anyone that just wants to get through it.

When this game originally came out to  the Ouya console and Amazon Fire TV,   it adopted a sprite look that made gameplay  look like a retro platform. For this new take   on the game with new gameplay mechanics, a  revamp look came along with it. In the place   of the sprites is a new hand-drawn look that  mimics the art style of many Saturday cartoons.

I loved the art style as it truly did feel like  an interactive old 4kids cartoon come to life   for the modern age. It's certainly not on the  level of something like Cuphead or Monsterboy   when it comes to the illustration quality, but  there's still a level of charm here I couldn't   help but appreciate.

If anything, I think  what could have used a bit more work was the   environment. While traversing through  areas, I felt that the background and   foreground could come off a bit too simple,  at times almost static-like. It occasionally   made gameplay feel like I was playing an  old fan-made flash game on New Grounds.

In terms of performance, while playing on my PC  for this review, I didn't notice a single hiccup.   It's a pretty minimal demanding so though I  didn't experience the title on Nintendo Switch,   I can't imagine it'd run into any  performance issues there either.

Major props to Chris Guin who not only  was the main developer behind this game   but was also the composer for its music. I love  the orchestration theme song that played in the   background during big story moments. This  song helped make moments feel epic to the   point of being reminiscent of Mario landing  on Good Egg Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy.   Even the boss battle music seemed like it belonged  in an amazing dog fight battle from Star Fox 64.   Needless to say the music in this game is awesome.

I wish I could say the same about the dialogue  in this game but sadly there isn't any,   at least not voiced. I enjoyed a lot of the  writing with this title and I would have loved   to see some sort of voice acting to go along with  it. I understand full voice acting is challenging,   especially for an indie game.

However, any  form of simple voice sounds that attach to   certain characters speaking I think could have  gone a long way for this game's presentation. The Adventures of Chris is a heartwarming  adventure game that's reminiscent of   classic NES platformers under the art  style of a Saturday morning cartoon.   I loved visiting levels from all around the  world and see Chris progress from a nobody   to a full-fledged hero.

His story is hilarious  yet charming in many ways that feel relatable,   especially with my childhood. If anything,  I would have just loved to see a bit more   on the presentation side when it came to  character dialogue or some of the art with   the environments.